Grilled mahi mahi and vintage claret rather than hot dogs and lager may seem unlikely sustenance for après-skiers in a bowling alley. But in the gilded showcase that is the American ski industry they do things on an altogether different scale.

Other resorts across the Rockies can only stare in wonderment at the huge amount of investment in Vail – which last season celebrated its 50th birthday season – and the extraordinary spending power of the platinum clientele that visit it. Four years ago, a survey showed the average visitor’s income to be in excess of £115,000. For the kind of recession-proof people who love to holiday here, the take-home pay can only have escalated.

Here at Bol Bowling (bolvail.com) in the village centre a lane for six costs a reasonable £30 per hour and shoe hire is £3. However, the chief executive of a successful Silicone Valley conglomerate or the occasional Hollywood star thinks nothing of toasting a trio of successive strikes with a £2,650 bottle of Chateau Petrus 2006 or splashing out a more modest £1,000 on Cheval Blanc 1995. Obviously, it’s pin money to them.

Gore came to the Vail Valley on a hunting expedition back in 1854. He brought with him 50 wagons, 112 horses, 50 foxhounds, 40 servants, a brass bed, an oval bathtub — and a chamber pot with a fur seat. Over the next three years he and his party reputedly slaughtered 2,000 buffalo, 1,600 elk, 100 bears, countless antelope and other smaller animals.

Finally the local Hunkpapa Sioux became so outraged at this wanton inroad into their food supply that they captured Gore and his mates, disarmed them, stripped them naked, and ordered them to leave. After surviving for a while on wild berries in the wilderness, this they did.

A little over 100 years later local rancher Earl Eaton rediscovered what was later to be called Vail Mountain while prospecting for uranium. In1957, he and is friend Pete Seibert took seven hours to reach the summit on skis.

During the Second World War, Seibert had been a member of the US 10th Mountain Division, the US alpine regiment, and had trained nearby. After the war he returned to Colorado with the intention of developing a ski resort.

“The first time I saw it,” said Seibert, “I knew it was as good a ski mountain as I had ever seen.” With ski business booming across the world in the Sixties and the Cold War becoming hot, white gold was definitely a more socially appealing commodity than uranium.

Seibert and a group of Denver businessmen set about raising the $1m needed to rent the land from the US Forest Service. The resort opened in December 1962 with a gondola, two chairlifts and nine runs. A day ticket cost $5. Vail became an overnight success story — not least because it was only half the driving distance from Denver to Aspen, its biggest rival.

The two resorts were different in character and remain so today. While Aspen was originally a silver mining town with some fine Victorian buildings, Vail was entirely purpose-built in an almost Disneyesque European style. It was dubbed Plastic Bavaria because of its mock Alpine chalets. In fact, the buildings were more reminiscent of the Austrian Tirol than southern Germany.

Certainly, it seemed a strange choice of architecture when the Rockies are so rich in their own frontier mining culture. But in a country where heritage is measured in decades not centuries, the resort of 50 years ago has come of venerable age. Back in 1962, the US Forest Service stipulated that the new resort must have a 30-bedroom hotel at the base. The five-star hotel, The Lodge at Vail, was completed just in time for the opening day and is now a listed building.

Modern-day Vail is the capital of the billion-dollar Vail Resorts corporate kingdom which encompasses Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, and Keystone in Colorado as well as Heavenly, Kirkwood, and Northstar in California and The Canyons in Utah. Vail Resorts has also bought two minnows in the snow business — Mt Brighton in Michigan and Afton Alps in Minnesota.

The reasonably priced £450 Epic Pass covers all Vail Resorts’ ski areas all season, along with Keystone’s neighbour Arapahoe Basin – and even five days in each of Verbier, Switzerland, Austria’s Arlberg resorts such as Lech and St Anton, and the French Three Valleys.

Vail itself stretches for three miles along the I-70 highway, a seamless collection of communities, each with mountain access, that are regenerated whenever it is considered necessary. Lionshead, a slapdash satellite that dated from the early Seventies was deemed not to have aged well. They knocked it all down and built a new village.

The same goes for the lifts – currently there are 31 of them and they are constantly being updated. After Whistler in British Columbia it is the second largest resort in North America.

Despite all the money being spent on developing the resort and the opulence of its hardcore American clientele, you don’t have to be the holder of a City salary to visit Vail. There’s a sufficient amount of reasonably priced accommodation as well as restaurants to be found in every corner of the resort.

However, the slopes are what you come for – they’re as sleek and immaculately groomed as its visitors. The front face of the mountain, served by a high-speed gondola from the village centre, has a huge variety of beginner and intermediate trails as well as some testing blacks. You can cruise all day down runs like Born Free, Ramshorn, and Northwoods or tackle steeps such as Prima and The Pump House.

Some critics suggest that the pistes are bland. Believe you me they’re not. After a leisurely lunch at The 10th restaurant at Mid-Vail, I set off on what was intended to be a meander down to the valley. The green Trans Montane trail seamlessly slips up a gear into the blue part of Riva Ridge. I relax. Then snap! I’m caught in the aptly named Tourist Trap. This is a wide but demandingly steep black wall. In glazed icy conditions, such as I encountered, it required full concentration. Of course, there are easier ways – just remember to look at the map before you head downhill.

There’s much more to Vail than pistes though – it’s the far side of the mountain, The Back Bowls and Blue Sky Basin, that are the real lure for accomplished skiers and snowboarders.

The bowls are glorious expanses of easy-pitch open terrain that provide a safe and wonderful introduction to powder skiing. Unlike most off-piste in the Alps, this huge area of ungroomed terrain lies within the resort’s boundary and is only opened when conditions are deemed to be safe. The same applies to Blue Sky Basin which has more demanding off-piste below the tree-line as well as hugely enjoyable runs through the woods such as Cloud 9.

Fifty years on, what was once Plastic Bavaria has continually reinvented itself to become what is now Authentic Colorado. It deserves its place on my shortlist of favourite world-class resorts.

Essentials

Peter Hardy’s trip to Vail (vail.com) was organised by Ski Safari (01273 224 060, skisafari.com) which offers skiing holidays to Vail and Breckenridge in Colorado with a wide choice of accommodation. He stayed at The Lodge at Vail. Prices start from £1,309 per person for seven nights, including flights and transfers but no meals.

He flew from Heathrow to Denver via Reykjavik with Icelandair (icelandair.co.uk) which also has flights from Manchester and Glasgow. A two- night city add-on at the Icelandair Hotel Reykjavik Marina, starts from £179 per person, per night. Including transfers, Northern Lights tour and a visit to the Blue Lagoon.

Where to lunch

Americans, even wealthy ones like Vail’s visitors, tend to eat a giant breakfast and suffer a self-service sandwich or burger for lunch. But the resort has now opened The 10th (001 970 754 1010) at Mid-Vail. This is Vail Resort’s first shot in any of its resorts at an Alpine-style waiter-service restaurant. The atmosphere is friendly enough, but it’s not cheap. Try the Heirloom Chicken and Pheasant Pot Pie for £14 and a glass of Ken Wright pinot noir £12.50.

Two Elks (754 8245) is a cavernous self-service at the gateway to China Bowl with a wide choice of American fast-food and oriental wok dishes. It was rebuilt 20 years ago after being burnt down by animal rights activists. That won’t happen to the latest generation of mountain facilities. Lift stations like the top of Blue Sky Basin look like ancient timber barns, but are in fact made of powdered aluminium.

Where to dine

Larkspur in the Golden Peak Lodge (754 8050) serves modern American cuisine. Try the lobster spaghetti. Bully Ranch in the Sonnenalp (479 5460) is more casual with good burgers and fish and chips. Beware the giant portions at Elways steakhouse at The Lodge at Vail (754 7818). Vendetta’s (476 5070) in Vail Village is my favourite Italian — staff seem pleased to see you and the food is of a consistently high standard. Try Cioppino — seafood in a tomato and saffron sauce. La Tour (476 4403) at the west end of Vail Village is contemporary Franco-American. Sweet Basil (476 0125) in the centre, is famed for its pork and lamb chops. Blue Moose Pizza (476 8666) in Lionshead is an authentic New York pizzeria, dine in or take away.

Vail has only one — it is owned by the resort and has a sound reputation for sympathetic instruction with full range of adult, teen, and children’s lessons. However, it’s expensive by European standards – adult beginner group lessons start at £92 for an afternoon. Instructors, like all restaurant staff, expect a 17 per cent tip.